An Independent Voice That Advocates For The Classroom Educator Without The Corrupting Politics Tied To Our Union And DOE Leadership.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

The Problem In Some Of Our High Schools In New York City.

Back when I started teaching in the New York City schools, I was told by my Assistant Principal that she was there to support me and have my back. If that met running interference to protect me from over aggressive parents, complaining students, and even the Principal. She was true to her word and as I was learning how to master the art of teaching, I was secure in the knowledge that I had administrative support.

Eventually, I acquired tenure and my Assistant Principal would come in once a semester to observe me, forewarning me of her appearance and asking me which class I would like her to observe. She was highly supportive and believed a teacher should have total authority of the classroom and autonomy on how best to teach his or her students. There was no "one-size-fits-all" metric and certainly no punitive Danielson rubric that is used as a weapon against teachers. In the early days of my career, before the Bloomberg and Klein years, it was a real pleasure to be a teacher.

Fast forward to the present and we now have administrative micromanagement, a punitive Danielson rubric, tenure based upon political and not educational factors, and weakened tenure protections that force teachers to prove their innocent rather than the DOE having to prove they're guilty of incompetence. Is it any wonder that New York City teachers take anxiety drugs and some even suffer from PSTD, as they struggle through the trials and tribulations of the New York City classroom.

While some of the blame can be laid at the feet of the teacher evaluation system, jointly approved by the DOE and UFT and bad school administration that rather foster conflict rather than collaboration. The majority of the blame lies with the student body and their sense of entitlement and lack of responsibility..

In many unscreened high schools students will come to class late, unprepared without a notebook, pen or pencil, and unfocused. These students fail to submit assignments, do poorly on tests and assessments, and act up by disrupting the class. Yet, when a teacher tries to discipline these students, they are immediately attacked by school administration for potential verbal abuse or even corporal punishment. These students can curse and threaten a teacher and suffer no consequence. Moreover, many high school administrators are narrowly focused on the bogus graduation rate and demand that 80% of a teachers roster be passed or be faced with an "ineffective" rating and 3020-a termination charges. If the teacher is not tenured the pressure to pass failing students is unbearable since they can be discontinued, simply based on a Principal's recommendation.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's ill-fated approval of allowing students to have cellphones in the schools have dire educational effects as they provide a distraction to learning, especially in high poverty schools. While schools can still ban cellphones if they choose, like Lehman campus in the Bronx, few do. The result is that teachers are forced to compete with these electronic distractions and the learning process is hurt. Further, student disrespect has never been higher in many of these schools. The students soon realize that the teacher is afraid to discipline them for their misbehavior or lack of responsibility and they realize that there is no real immediate consequences to their actions. The result is a classroom in chaos and classroom management is just an illusion.

These schools suffer from high teacher turnover, unstable educational environment, and students who don't follow the civil rules of our society since they see no immediate consequences for their actions. While zero tolerance may not be the answer, the permissive culture and the restorative justice approaches is not either and until student behaviors change, these schools will remain the dumping ground for struggling students who at best, will end up in low paying, low skilled jobs and at worst in our prison system.

20 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Been teaching in NYC since 1996. As you mention, it was a pleasure to teach back then. Administrators and the UFT had every teachers back. We all worked together. The kids were rough back then as they are rough now but the blame today is always on the teacher. The worst thing today is fear. Fear of vindictive admins, fear of drive by Danielson observations, fear of lawyer happy parents. It is indeed true that teachers are now taking anti-anxiety medications. I should know because I take insomnia meds because I can't sleep well at night due to running thoughts over all the fears I now face. The joy of teaching has been sucked dry. It is no surprise to me that we are on the cusp of a massive teacher shortage. I am still proud to be a teacher, but I am not happy like I used to be about showing up each day in this climate of fear.

The discrimination and abusiveness on ATRs will stop, only when they can no longer find enough inexperienced and less qualified teachers which is starting to happen. The ATR pool is in nature discriminatory against the most veteran workforce. Most schools that have pushed out their most experienced workforce are now in trouble. Many principals went after experienced teachers, unfortunately now they realized it was a big mistake. They are going to have problems recruiting and retaining new teachers.

Chaz I couldn't agree with you more and these feelings I deeply harbor. I stayed in the same renewal school for four years when I should have done everything in my power to get out by the end of my third year. For the first three years my evaluations were all effective and satisfactory. The principal even wrote me a letter of recommendation. However the principal was given a strict quota by the former superintendent of district 27 (before the fat bitch Horowitz took over as renewal superintendent). He could only pick one or two teachers to recommend for tenure and the rest of the pool were handed extensions. So I proceeded into my fourth year as an effective teacher with one probationary extension. Unbeknownst to me at that time, my former principal Neil Ganesh in secret arranged to have certain teachers rated with nothing by ineffectives for that year. That's exactly what happened to me and other people. I was discontinued. I did not receive a single element of support except only on paper. I am in a much nicer school now outside of the DOE with a principal who actually cares about his teachers, and knows and understands what it means to collaborate with his staff in order to prosper as a school.

The problem with many schools is that there is an illusion of learning. The sad part of it all is that a good portion of the people running this circus (Farina, the superintendents and principals) know this as well, but they must play the game and put on a facade that tells all that "Not can every child succeed, they can soar to the heavens academically." It's all bullshit and they know it. A large portion of the system is a "shit show" but one that must continue to give the illusion of students learning while managing the reality of let's face it - many students who have neither the will, the motivation or interest to learn. Yes - there are some students out there that have no interest in learning. What often gets forgotten is the mass amount of students in this system who give the least possible effort in school and are fine with the minimal passing grade. Have these students been around in past years? Absolutely, but another truth is that teaching in this system in the past was much easier than it is now. In the old system, if a teacher wanted to fail half his class if their marks called for that, he could - no problem. Today? Not a chance in hell would that fly in many schools. All the accountability would fall on the teach and even if the administration says they have the teacher's back, the truth is they've placed themselves on the "map". So what do many of them do? They hand out a packet of extra credit, they hope the kid does it, they put in some partial credit, it raises his grade from a 28 to a 54, they see the kid has been present most of the time, and they pass him with a 65. We've all seen this story. They've created an illusion of learning but the reality is today's teacher works for a system that undermines many of their talents, passion and ethics and honestly doesn't give one shit about them as individuals who entered this profession to inspire and teach. Education in New York city will never be fixed. It can however be improved, but plain and simple, the city has not the "balls" to do so and never will.

Ah yes! The good ole' days of Rudy Crew, where District Offices ran everything and everyone knew everyone. I would like to see the data to see if all this new crap has made a bit difference on student scores. Although, it's even ridiculous to compare because the tests have been changed and are so different over the years.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Restorative Justice can't work. But when you have people who can't even communicate a singular vision for their school running it, there's no chance in hell it will. These stories of people becoming discontinued are happening more and more since these tenure rules were changed. It's going to get worse and worse before, and this isn't even a guarantee, before it gets better.

To 8:33. The illusion is even more illusory now! The new trend at my school is that the teachers are literally forbidden from teaching. We were told that very thing. Instead of 'teacher-centered' learning, we were told that all the teacher does is introduce how to do the 'activity guide' of the day. Then student groups (made so everyone passes!) 'discover' their own learning and 'construct' their own knowledge through 'rich discussions,' research and presentations to the class. (Isn't that what we used to do - present?)

please stop your complaining and crying!!! you (we) are getting what we deserve for doing nothing about the abuses. we work for the worst system in the nation and it doesn't get any better by doing nothing but CRY! Waaaaa, Waaaaa.